F U G L Y

The video:
→ First two goes from right to left, jumping 2' at the center and then 2'3" on the left. Does well.

Pretty.

→ Course change, 2'3" on left and 2'6" at center, poles removed from far right.
→ First go, from left to right, I bury him. I do nothing to assist through the line.

Hanging knees of doom.

To your grave, Wonder Pony!

→ Second go, from left to right, he does everything correctly. I get air time after the second fence and evidently pretend that I'm jumping down a bank.

Weee... I'm an asshole.

→ Third go, I kill our motor and Archie peters out between the fences. I don't count this as a refusal, I consider this a stupid rider. You can sorta hear me say something like, Gotta go faster!
→ Fourth go, Archie, tired now, nails the fence with his hind left. His shit head rider just feels that things are "off", not that her horse is three-legged lame between fences.

This is what a three-legged canter looks like.

→ Course change to 2'3" on left and half an X in center.
→ Pony is very cautious the first time, but hits the rail on the 2'3" the second time.

Ugh. I feel like a shitty horse owner and a shitty rider. I keep watching this video, over and over, and seeing all the things that went wrong. I will say: confidence is not an issue. 2'6" looks just like 2'3", even when I discover that it's not actually 2'6".

Pros:
→ My horse is an athletic beast who can still carry us safely over fences even after his shithead rider buries him grave deep into the base.
→ Archie has an incredible, incredible, work ethic.
→ He forgives.
→ I have sort of enough sense to say "this isn't right" and to make the questions easier.

Cons:→ I lack skill.
→ While the Kid can successfully (though, that's debatable) clear the heights I ask him to jump, he is not at the fitness level to do it multiple times.
→ I offer no direction between fences. Pushing him forward so that he chipped less would have solved the majority of our problems. I know the line works as a one-stride. There's no reason that he shouldn't do an easy land-stride-jump instead of a land-stride-chip-eat fence-scramble over. Also, forward would have helped with the actual clearing of these little fences. Derp derp.

What now?
→ More jumping. This might be adverse to common thought, but we need to practice the motions and build the muscles. Except, not at 2'3 - 2'6", because he wears out too quickly and gets sloppy.
→ More pole work, strengthening that hind end.
→ Add in some long, slow distances to build his stamina. Maybe Sundays just need to be our trail ride days and we need to go out for a couple hours and intersperse walking, power walking, trotting and slow canters.